from sbiff

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman with the Cinema Vanguard Award at the 26th edition of the Fest, which runs January 27 -February 6, 2011, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Tribute will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2011 at the historic Arlington Theatre.

The Cinema Vanguard Award was created in recognition of an actor who has forged his/her own path – taking artistic risks and making a significant and unique contribution to film. The award has previously been awarded to Christoph Waltz, Vera Farmiga, Stanley Tucci, Peter Sarsgaard, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Gosling.

“Honoring Nicole Kidman is so exciting for us here at SBIFF,” comments Roger Durling. “Her work is immensely diverse and with this year’s heart-wrenching and brilliant performance in ‘Rabbit Hole’ – a project she helped develop as well – it is exactly who we should be celebrating with the 2011 Cinema Vanguard Award.”

With each of her performances, Nicole Kidman represents the actor in its finest and most polished form. A woman of many talents, she effortlessly navigates through a diverse range of genres; mastering drama, horror, comedy, romance, and even the musical. In her upcoming film Rabbit Hole, which she also co-produced, Kidman plunges heart-first into the role of Becca Corbett, a wife and mother who experiences the ultimate loss. Starring alongside Aaron Eckhart, Kidman delivers a performance so passionate and engrossing, that the audience can’t help but to place themselves in Becca’s shoes.

Beginning her career in the realm of Australian cinema, she starred in the thriller Dead Calm (1989), starring opposite Sam Neil. In 1990 she made the breakthrough into Hollywood cinema, staring alongside Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder. She paired with Cruise once again in 1992 for epic Far and Away, directed by Ron Howard. In 1995 she starred as Dr. Chase Meridian in the blockbuster hit Batman Forever, and also earned critical acclaim for her portrayal of a fame crazed housewife in To Die For. Kidman followed her success with the role of Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady (1996), and teamed up once again with Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick’s sexual thriller, Eyes Wide Shut (1999). In 2001, she stepped into one of her career defining roles as courtesan Satine in the musical Moulin Rouge, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Leading Actress. In the same year, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in writer/director Alejandro Amenábar’s psychological thriller, The Others. The next year, Kidman followed up with her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours and won the Academy Award for Best Actress. In the next several years, she continued to show her range, performing in a wide variety of films, such as the Civil War epic Cold Mountain (2003), the film adaptation of the TV show Bewitched (2005), Sydney Pollack’s The Interpreter (2005), and the film adaptation of the novel The Golden Compass (2007) among others.

For more info on the festival please visit: santa barbara international film festival